


Divinity

by JCapasso



Category: The Magicians (TV)
Genre: Canon-compliant temporary MCD, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-19
Updated: 2020-10-19
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:00:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,876
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27099235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JCapasso/pseuds/JCapasso
Summary: After Quentin dies and Eliot is saved, he moves on to the underworld. Little does he know that he's going to get a second chance.
Relationships: Quentin Coldwater/Eliot Waugh
Comments: 10
Kudos: 44





	1. Chapter 1

Quentin had no idea what Penny meant when he said the ‘deluxe package’, and when he found himself standing in a clearing watching his friends around a bonfire, that didn’t clear much up. When he started to move towards them to say something, Penny held him back, so he got the hint that he was only here to watch. He had hoped for a moment to get the chance to say goodbye. He watched sadly as Alice choked up and couldn’t speak as she threw the mug he had repaired into the fire. It surprised him a little when Kady was the one to start the music and he smiled at bit at the song. 

He could hear the sadness in all of their voices, even the dean’s and Penny 23’s. He was holding it together though right up until a new voice joined them. The moment he saw Eliot leaning on a cane, shuffling across the clearing, he choked up and couldn’t take his eyes off him. All that work to save him and he’d succeeded. It cost his life, sure, but he didn’t care. Just seeing Eliot standing there in one piece and clearly himself again was more than worth it. Seeing Eliot so broken-hearted though…that part hurt. 

“Appreciate the level of sincere grief dude,” Penny told him earnestly before trying to lighten the mood. “I seem to remember when I kicked it…you laughing.” 

Quentin couldn’t help the half-laugh half-sob that pulled from him, even as he could only bear to take his eyes off Eliot for a second. “I’m really sorry about that.”

“It’s okay,” Penny chuckled. “I’ve met you,” he joked and then got back on track. “I think you know your answer now. The story, for them, it’s just starting. But it won’t be the same story. Because of you. You didn’t just save their lives. You changed their lives. As much as they changed yours. You didn’t want to leave all that did you?” 

Quentin was about to respond when he noticed what Eliot was pulling out of his pocket. A peach. The memories of their life together assaulted him and Eliot’s choice of what to add to the fire was as telling as his words when he had taken control from the monster. There had been a hundred things he could have told Quentin to prove his identity, but he had chosen that. That had been what helped Quentin have the strength to keep fighting and now…the peach…it made it so much harder to let go. Knowing that if he was still there then maybe… “It’s time to say goodbye,” Penny said as he put an arm on Quentin’s shoulder. 

Quentin tried to pull away. “Just one last look,” he begged. One last look at him before I go. One last look to keep me going for however many years it is before he joins me, and please god let it be a long time. Let him have a long happy life. Penny hesitated a minute before nodding and stepping back up beside Quentin. This was his friend. His brother in all but blood. He could bend the rules a bit and give him a few more minutes. 

Quentin choked up as he saw Eliot do the same and even through his tears, his worry grew as he saw Eliot pull slowly away from Alice’s comforting grip and close in on himself. As he saw the tears finally begin to fall from Eliot’s eyes as he hung his head defeatedly, he couldn’t watch anymore. There was nothing that he could do and watching Eliot fall to pieces was tearing him apart too. He turned and nodded to Penny, and as they turned and walked away, Eliot’s anguished song slowly faded behind them.


	2. Chapter 2

When Hades felt his wife’s death, he tuned himself in to the one that had meant so much to her and he could feel her anguish now. He could also feel her connection to one who had just arrived in his realm, so he turned his mind to potential ways to help her. For his wife’s sake. How far would he be willing to stick his neck out though? Eventually he decided that he could stick it out a little bit. Just not enough to get himself into serious trouble. 

He watched and waited until she was alone, having heard quite a bit about she and her friends’ tenacity and uncanny ability to get gods killed. He didn’t want to take the chance of startling her too much or whisking her away and bringing them running to her rescue. When he appeared in the room, she jumped and spun to look at him with a defensive stance, but didn’t make any move to attack or call for help. 

“Who are you and what do you want?” Julia asked. She knew that the only thing that could make it through the warding here was a god, and she wasn’t going to attack first. Not until she knew for a fact that this god couldn’t or wouldn’t bring Q back. 

“I am Hades. I believe you were familiar with my wife, Persephone?” he said. 

Julia blanched, getting more nervous and more hopeful at the same time. On one hand, if any god could bring Q back it would be him. On the other hand, she had gotten his wife killed. “I-I’m sorry…a-about Persephone. I didn’t mean to…If I had known, I wouldn’t have…”

“Peace, child. I’m not angry with you,” Hades tried to stop her babbling. “She cared a great deal for you. As such, she gave you a choice. One that was taken away from you. I have come to offer you that choice again, in her honor.” He wouldn’t be faulted for honoring his dead wife this way. The most he would get is a slap on the wrist for his interference. 

“I…um…but…” Julia was confused and took a moment to regain her equilibrium and say something coherent. “Can I ask you something first?” 

“You may ask, but keep in mind that my time here is not unlimited,” Hades told her, having a good idea what she was going to ask, and how it would tie into his offer. 

“A good friend of mine just died. Quentin Coldwater. Is he…I mean…could you…Is there any way you could bring him back? It’s just…if I have a choice I would rather have that than anything else.” 

“I cannot bring him back,” Hades told her. “To do so would mean the removal of my divinity. I would become human and the underworld would be without a leader or end up with a far worse leader.” He knew full well how many were vying for a position as his successor and how much damage many of those would do to his realm. 

Julia could tell by the tone of his voice that he was trying to tell her something else. Something that he couldn’t or wouldn’t say out loud. Some clue he wanted her to pick up. She took a second to think on his words before it dawned on her. “But if my choice is between humanity and divinity…if I choose divinity, I could bring him back? And then become human again?” 

“What you do with your divinity when you get it is your choice,” Hades told her carefully. If he outright encouraged her in this then he would be an accomplice. It would be bad enough allowing her to take his soul, but he could claim distraction in that. 

“I see…” Julia said thoughtfully. She realized that with how carefully he was wording things and how he was avoiding spelling anything out that she likely wouldn’t get an answer to her next question, but she had to try anyway. “And if a goddess were to, hypothetically, bring someone back from the dead…how would they go about it?” 

“Bringing someone back from the dead is forbidden and to teach one how to do so is just as forbidden,” Haden explained. 

Julia nodded. She would be on her own then. She would have to find her own way. It was no different than before. “I understand. I would like to choose divinity, if you don’t mind.” 

“You will have to return to the place where the decision was made for you. I can turn back time within that small bubble and give you the chance to make the choice.”

“You can turn back time?” Julia asked, getting another idea. 

“Not for the world. Only in a small area. And only for one who has been touched by divinity,” he told her. 

“Oh. Okay. Should I just call you when I get there or…” 

“I can take you there, if you wish,” Hades offered. He couldn’t be away for too long, and slipping away again would be more difficult. When Julia nodded, he put his hands on her shoulders and they reappeared in the infirmary startling professor Lipson out of her skin almost. 

“Sorry professor,” Julia said apologetically. “We just need to use the bed I had last week for a few minutes.” 

She looked at them curiously before shrugging. “It’s empty and it’s a slow day, so go ahead.” Once Julia was laying in the bed, the man with her stood at the foot of it and then they both disappeared from her view for a long moment before they were back and then disappeared as quickly as they had appeared. 

Julia appeared back in the room she had just left, still feeling the lingering pain of the wound she’d had to take back for a few minutes, and Hades was standing next to her again. She could feel the goddess power flowing through her as she turned to look at the god. “I must return to my realm. But you should know, the only thing more forbidden than returning a soul from the dead, is to bring back a soul without a body,” he said as he disappeared. 

Julia took a heavy breath. She understood. She would have to find a way to get Q a body first. She knew from her first experience as a goddess that it couldn’t just be any body. It would have to be compatible with his soul. Which meant finding a way to rebuild his original body. This would be more complicated than she thought. She wasn’t going to give up though. But she would need help. The others deserved to be in on this anyway. Especially Eliot. He was barely holding it together. He had returned to Fillory to find that hundreds of years had passed in his absence and that he had lost the crown, as had Margo. Both of them were taking it hard, but Eliot was a mess. More so than usual even. She could tell that he missed Q as much if not more than she did, so maybe this hope would help. 

Her first call though was to Alice. As Quentin’s girlfriend she deserved to be the first to know. She wasn’t taking his loss very well either, but instead of falling apart, she had thrown herself into her work. She was the head librarian now and was completely redoing the entire organization. Eliot, Margo, and Josh were her second call since the three of them were clearly together. They always were these days. Julia couldn’t imagine the strain that it must be putting on Margo and Josh’s relationship, but Eliot needed someone to look after him right now. 

Once everyone was gathered, she explained everything that happened and that she was a goddess again, not missing the sad look on Penny’s face at that. He looked a little more hopeful when she mentioned that once she brought Q back she would be demoted back to human again. “And you’re sure they won’t just kill you instead?” 

“Relatively sure, yes,” Julia nodded. Hades likely would have warned her if that was a possibility. 

“That’s not good enough,” Penny shook his head. 

“Even if it does, it’s worth it. If anyone deserves another chance at life it’s Q. I would still do it,” Julia said firmly. 

“No, I can’t let you…”

Penny was cut off by Eliot’s rough voice. “It’s her choice,” he snapped. 

Margo and Kady both looked torn, but Margo wasn’t going to risk saying anything that could set Eliot off. Kady didn’t care so much. “How sure are you that you’ll survive this?” 

Julia thought for a minute before saying, “Ninety five percent sure.”

Kady nodded. “Okay. That’s good enough for me then. What do you need us to do?” Penny looked like he couldn’t decide how to react before he just deflated and nodded too. If she really was that sure…they couldn’t not take the chance to get Quentin back. 

“First I need to figure out how to rebuild his body. Then I need to figure out how to revive his soul,” Julia said. “We need to hit the books.” 

“I’ll check the main branch of the library and read your books and see if I can get a direction to search in,” Alice offered. 

“And in the meantime, the rest of us will hit the Brakebills library,” Eliot said, daring anyone to argue. 

“I won’t,” Kady said. “I’m going to check with the hedges. Get the word out what we’re looking for. They have resources Brakebills doesn’t.” 

“Good enough,” Margo nodded. “Let’s get to work then.”


	3. Chapter 3

It took two days for Alice to come back with the news that they needed to ask The Binder for help. In that two days, everyone had gotten more and more frazzled. Especially Eliot who refused to even sleep and had been popping pills to keep himself awake. Most of the others could contribute much of their frazzled states to Eliot. Once they had that information, Julia convinced Margo to help her out by putting a sleeping spell on Eliot. The last thing they needed when dealing with the frustrating binder was Eliot’s insanity on top of it and he really did need the sleep. 

Talking to the binder was, indeed, and exercise in frustration and in the end he only agreed to help if Julia promised to burn his book immediately after he gave her the instructions. No more ‘one last bit of help’. No more delays. Once she agreed, he would only agree to give the directions once and if they missed something then it wasn’t his fault. Hearing that, everyone got their own notebook and pens before nodding that they were ready. This way they could compare notes after and be less likely to miss something. Two hours of writing and cramped hands followed, but when he was finally done, Julia carried out her end of the bargain and threw a fireball at the book, noting the relieved look on The Binder’s face before he disappeared into the pages that were now burning. 

When Eliot woke up, he was livid, but Margo managed to calm him down with an extra large drink and the promise that they knew how to get Q back now and that Julia was working on it. It took another few days for Julia to finish, with everyone there for support, and about the time that Quentin’s rebuilt body started breathing again, Julia let out a cry of pain and collapsed next to him, curled into a ball. 

Penny rushed to her side, while the rest watched them both with bated breath. “I’m okay,” Julia croaked out. “Losing my divinity just hurt like a bitch.” 

Penny helped her up to the opposite couch from the one Q was on as Eliot asked. “When will he wake up?”

“A few minutes,” Julia told him as she tried to catch her breath. She didn’t want the first thing Q did when he woke up to be worrying over her. 

The tense silence in the room was broken a few minutes later by a startled, “What the fuck?!” as Quentin sat straight up on the couch. He looked around to see who all was there and the elated smiles on their faces and it took a split second for him to meet Eliot’s eyes that were shining with tears. Before he could even say anything though, he had a lapful of Alice who was kissing him soundly. He kissed her back for a moment on instinct before pulling away. “We should go somewhere and talk,” he said gently. 

Quentin had done a lot of thinking while he was in the underworld and realized that he was being more than unfair to Alice. He had been hurting and scared and vulnerable and when she asked him to come back to her, he had accepted, but he knew, even then, that he shouldn’t have. Clearly his decision showed somehow in his voice or his demeanor, because Alice scrambled off his lap and looked at him heart-brokenly. “You’re breaking up with me, aren’t you?” 

“Let’s just go somewhere more private to talk.”

“No,” Alice shook her head stubbornly. “If you’re going to do this, you do it right here. In front of everyone.” 

Quentin sighed heavily before standing up so he could look her in the eyes. “I’m sorry, Alice. Truly. The last thing I want to do is hurt you. It’s just…we’re not good together. You have to see that. We bring out the worst in each other.” He could see the anger and heartache burning in her eyes and rushed to say, “Don’t think it’s because I don’t love you, because I do. Just…”

“Just not as much as you love him,” Alice snapped, unable to hold it in anymore. 

“Huh?” Quentin asked inelegantly, not expecting this turn to the conversation. 

“Don’t treat me like an idiot, Quentin. I’m not stupid,” she glared at him, turning her glare to Eliot for a moment before going back to Quentin. “You’ve been in love with Eliot since practically the moment you set foot at Brakebills. Don’t you dare deny it.”

“I can’t deny it,” Quentin admitted, missing the sharp intake of breath from Eliot. “But that doesn’t mean…”

“Oh it means everything,” Alice said heatedly. “Why do you think I was so upset when I found you in bed together back in first year? You really think I couldn’t forgive a stupid drunken mistake? If it had been anyone but Eliot in bed with you…I would have been pissed, sure, but I would have gotten over it. But you chose him over me then. Just like you have every time there’s ever been a choice to be made and I was an idiot for thinking that it would be any different this time.” 

“It’s true?” Eliot couldn’t resist inserting himself into the conversation, taking a few steps closer. “You really…loved me for…for so long?” 

Quentin threw his hands up in the air in frustration. “Jesus Christ El. How many times did I tell you that when we were…” he cut himself off for a second before deciding that he didn’t really give a shit anymore if Eliot wanted anyone to know and picked up right where he left off. “When we were married?” He ignored the gasps of surprised from everyone, but the loudest was from Alice whose eyes widened and she covered her mouth as she backed away from them. 

“I know, but I just thought…” Eliot trailed off, realizing that he’d been even stupider than he thought.

“You thought what? That I was lying? That I was just trying to make the best of things because ‘we didn’t have a choice’?” he sneered that last part. He knew that losing his temper like this was somewhat out of character for him, but damnit he’d been at peace. He was adjusting to his afterlife and then he was dragged back up into this shitshow with Alice all pissed and yelling at him, like it was all his fault. Like she hadn’t taken advantage of him when he was at his lowest point too. He could be forgiven for losing his temper. “News flash, Eliot. You were the only one that felt trapped there. I didn’t. I chose you because I loved you. Not because you were the only choice. I could have been with any girl from any of the villages.”

“But Arielle…” Eliot tried to point out. 

“Only wanted me. I could have just been with her and left you out of it, but I told her that I loved you and if she wanted to be with me then we were a package deal. I cared about her, yes, but I never loved her.”

“Then why…” Eliot furrowed his brow. 

“For Teddy,” Quentin said irritated. He knew that he should have hashed this out way back when, but Eliot had seemed so accepting. He’d seemed to understand. And Quentin knew that he had issues with avoiding difficult subjects when he could. Clearly it was time to hash this out now. “I wanted a family with you, Eliot. I suggested that she marry us so that any children she had would belong to all three of us. Just in case you and I got dragged away too soon without our son, I wanted him to have his mother there to take care of him still.” 

“But…is that why…I just…you were so upset when she died…” Eliot tried to wrap his head around all this. 

“She was the mother of our son, El. Of course, I was upset. But it was nothing compared to how I felt when you died almost fifty years later. You have no idea how much it tore me apart when I woke up and found you dead in our bed. Once we got you buried, Teddy had to move in with me for /months/ Eliot. I barely got out of bed. He had to force me to eat. You know how he finally convinced me not to die? By pointing out that we never finished the mosaic. He told me that you wouldn’t want me to give up. That I couldn’t join you until it was finished. So I did. I spent the next two fucking /years/ finishing that /damn/ mosaic and I had every intention of following after you the second I did,” Quentin ranted. “Before I even got a chance to do anything though, I was back here. In this body. And there you were. The part of me that wasn’t confused wanted nothing more than to run straight into your arms. I missed you so much. You know what happened then?” 

“Q…I…” Eliot winced as he tried to speak. To say something. Anything. Quentin apparently wasn’t finished yet though. 

“You told me that you didn’t want me. That ‘now that we had a choice’ we wouldn’t work. That it just ‘wasn’t you’. And now you’re standing there telling me that all those years, you thought that /I/ was the liar? Fuck you, Eliot,” he finished before storming out and slamming the door behind him. He just needed to get away right now. He needed to calm down and remember how to be alive again.


	4. Chapter 4

Eliot stood there as Quentin stormed out, completely rigid. Margo was the only one who knew him well enough to know that he was trying not to fall apart. She knew she didn’t have time to make a drink for him so she just grabbed the whole bottle of tequila and handed it over as she led him to the couch and gently sat him down. Julia was the first to find words, and wasn’t nearly as familiar with Eliot’s moods as Margo. Even if she was, she might not have held back though. “So let me get this straight…you and Q were married for more than fifty years. You had a son and a whole life together. Then you get sent back here to the beginning and you tell him to fuck off? What the fuck, Eliot?” 

Eliot took a long drag straight from the bottle before saying, “You think I don’t know I fucked up?”

“Oh, honey,” Margo ran a hand through his hair soothingly. “I wish I could say you didn’t, but in this case…you need to fix it. I know how much you love him El.” 

“How, Bambi?” Eliot asked desperately. “How do I fix this?”

Margo may know Eliot best, but Julia knew Quentin best. Only the fact that they both obviously loved each other so deeply made her willing to help. If he could pull his head out of his ass, he could make Quentin happy. He’d apparently done so for fifty years once before. “That’s easy. And if you were truly married to him for so long, you should know too. Just fight for him. All he wants is someone who cares enough to fight for him.” 

Eliot closed his eyes as he took another long swig of the bottle. That was the rub wasn’t it. Eliot knew that he wasn’t a fighter. He was a coward. He’d proved it over and over again. Especially regarding Quentin. He ran away when the going got tough. It was what he did. What he’d always done. He remembered all the times that Quentin had come after him at the mosaic. How many times Quentin had fought for him. He took a few deep breaths as he screwed up his courage, remembering what he’d told the memory Quentin when he was trying to get out of his mind. ‘If I ever get out of here, Q, know that when I’m braver it’s because I learned it from you’. It was time to put his money where his mouth was. He nodded curtly, and set the almost empty now bottle on the table much harder than he intended as he got up. “Well. I guess I have some things to do then, don’t I.” 

Margo knew how much this was costing him. How hard this was for him to do, and she was beyond proud of him. She just hoped that he could make it through without ballsacking out. As Eliot walked out the door to go fight for his and Quentin’s relationship, that jolted Alice out of her shock and she ran upstairs and slammed the door to her room before bursting into tears. She wasn’t up there long before Margo burst in the door. “Look, I get how much it must suck to be you right now, but we need to get something straight. Those two have the kind of love that the whole world should aspire to, and you will /not/ make things difficult for them. Capice?” 

Alice took a few shaky breaths before she was able to answer. “Yeah. I get it,” she said harshly. If she was being petty she could go on about how she was never part of the group anyway. They had only tolerated her because of Quentin. She knew better though. She had gotten enough of an emotional slap-down tonight to not have any fight left in her. She knew it was her own attitude that drove people away from her. She knew that she had taken advantage of Quentin when he was weak. She hadn’t meant to at the time, but she still did it. She knew how much Quentin loved Eliot, and how hard he was fighting to save him and how he had been losing hope. She knew that, subconsciously, she had wanted to get her hooks into him before they got Eliot back and hope that his loyalty would keep him with her. And if they didn’t get Eliot back, she could be there for him. She knew that all of this was her own fault. Realizing that whole life they’d had…it made it as clear as day. She was the interloper here. Not Eliot. 

When Alice didn’t say anything else, Margo just nodded. “Good,” she said as she walked out. She was so not the person to deal with the emotional drama. She’d had more than enough of that with Fen when they thought Eliot was dead. And then dealing with Q’s death. She couldn’t take anymore. Once she was alone again, Alice considered her options for a few minutes before she grabbed her suitcase out of the closet to get the last of the stuff that she hadn’t cleared out yet. Quentin had been right. They did bring out the worst in each other. The best thing she could do for all of them was to get as far away as possible. It was time for her to finish moving into the head librarian’s house. There was nothing left for her here. 

It only took Eliot five minutes to figure out where Quentin had gone. If they had been in Fillory, he would have gone to the mosaic, but here on Earth…there was only one place he would go. The fact that it was summer and there would only be a handful of staff on the campus at all, made it even clearer. He walked into the physical kid’s cottage and stopped inside the doorway, seeing the defeated slump of Quentin’s shoulders as he stood at the bar. Eliot took a moment to decide how to handle this before walking over and going behind the bar to mix up Quentin’s favorite drink. “I fucked up. Big time,” Eliot said as he handed it over. 

“I know,” Quentin said tightly, not really angry anymore, but not quite ready to forgive and forget yet. Not without more than that. Not this time. 

Eliot smiled sadly, taking his own drink with him and took Quentin’s hand, leading him to the couch, glad when Q followed him without protest. Once they were sitting down, Eliot sighed. He’d been trying to formulate his speech the whole way here and hadn’t gotten very far. He would just have to wing it and hope it was good enough. “You know me, Q. Better than anyone else. Probably even better than Margo. You know I’m a coward. You know that I run away when things get real.” 

“I had thought we got past all that though,” Quentin said shakily. “Fifty years, Eliot. And you treated it like it was nothing. Like it wasn’t anything more than a dream.” 

“I know,” Eliot said ashamed. “I was just so…caught off guard. It felt like it /was/ a dream. The best dream I could ever have imagined. It was everything I ever wanted and I just thought…it was too good to be true. I don’t get happiness, Q. I don’t deserve it. There had to be a catch. So I grasped at whatever straws I could find.”

“Do you have any idea how it felt, El? To have lost you and then get you back just for…that?” 

“I can’t even imagine, Q, and I am so sorry. You should know…when I was trapped in my mind by the monster…I wasn’t alone here. The last guy who was possessed by him was still hanging around too. He’s the one who helped me get out. To get you the message that I was still alive. I had to find the door. To do that, I had to find my most traumatic memory. My greatest regret. I tried everything I could think of before I sucked it up and admitted where it would be. Reliving every other horrifying moment of my life on the off chance that it was there was still more preferable than visiting that one memory.”

“Which memory?” Quentin asked worriedly. He couldn’t imagine how hard that must have been for Eliot. He knew that there was some seriously bad stuff in Eliot’s past. 

“The day we got our memories of that other life. The day I walked away from you and what we could have had,” Eliot told him, the tears building in Quentin’s eyes pulling them from his own. “The day that I hurt you,” he added softly. “I yelled at myself in the memory, if it helps. I told him that he was being stupid. I have never hated myself more in my life than I did then.” Eliot took a few deep breaths before he threw out the hail marry. “I understand if I went to far this time. If I lost you forever. But if you’ll give me a chance…I swear I’ll make this up to you. I’ll be braver. I’ll fight for you…for us…just as much as you always have. I won’t walk away again.” 

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep, Eliot,” Quentin sighed heavily. 

“I can…I will…” Eliot all but begged. He wasn’t going to give up this time. He wasn’t going to walk away again. Ever. Not unless Q told him point blank that there was nothing left to fight for. 

Quentin closed his eyes as he set his decision in stone before he opened them and looked Eliot right in the eyes. “You were right, El. I do know you. I know who you are, good and bad. And I love you for all of it. You won’t be able to keep that promise, but that’s okay. I know what I’m signing up for with you, and I’ll fight as much as I have to. Just as long as I know there’s something to fight for.” He knew how hard it had been for Eliot to walk in here and bare his soul. The fact that he did it anyway proved beyond a shadow of a doubt how much Quentin meant to him. That was good enough. 

Eliot grabbed the front of Quentin’s shirt and yanked him into a desperate kiss, not even caring that the move had spilled both of their drinks. He was just glad that Quentin was kissing him back just as desperately. When they both had to break for air, Eliot held Quentin’s forehead against his own. “I will /always/ love you, Q. Always.” 

“And I’ll always love you, El,” Quentin said softly, breathing in his lover’s scent after so long. 

“We should renew our vows,” Eliot said nervously. Quentin had asked him to marry him the first time. “Or get married, I guess would be more accurate since we’re not technically married on this planet in this time.” 

“Yeah, okay,” Quentin grinned happily, settling himself in Eliot’s arms in the long remembered position from their past. “Should we use the same vows or…do you remember them?” 

“I remember ever word,” Eliot whispered, burying his face in his fiancée’s hair as the tears of joy leaked from his eyes. He’d forgotten what it was like to be happy. He only hoped it would go as well as it did last time. 

“Me too,” Quentin whispered back, closing his eyes as he listened to Eliot’s heartbeat and let it lull him to sleep. Coming back to life was exhausting. The stress he’d been under since he’d learned of Quentin’s death was enough for Eliot to follow close behind with nary a thought of moving off the couch right now. They were both exactly where they wanted to be.


End file.
